You might have already heard about these statistics: There are six times as many Americans seeking work as there are job openings, and the average duration of unemployment — the time the average job-seeker has spent looking for work — is more than six months, the highest level since the 1930s.
Paul Krugman made an excellent point in his New York Times piece the other day.
To quote:
“You might think, then, that doing something about the employment situation would be a top policy priority. But now that total financial collapse has been averted, all the urgency seems to have vanished from policy discussion, replaced by a strange passivity. There’s a pervasive sense in Washington that nothing more can or should be done, that we should just wait for the economic recovery to trickle down to workers.
This is wrong and unacceptable.”
He exhorted the Federal Government to make ‘creating jobs’ as the numero uno priority.
Couple of his suggestions to immediately improve the job situation are:
- Additional funding for states to improve public services
- Tax credit for employers that increase employees on their payroll
We do need more folks like Paul to pipe on the eve of the forthcoming ‘Jobs Summit’.
Do you have any other ideas that need to put on the table?
